."

Clarice played a final chord and got up.

Bellairs lunched on the dahabeeyah that day and Clarice met him as
usual. Her manner gave no sign of any mental disturbance. Perhaps it was
curiously calm. He wondered a little, but was too happy to wonder much.
Joy made him cruel, for nothing is so cruel as joy. Only he was glad
that Clarice had so much pride, for he thought now that in her pride lay
his safety. He no longer feared that she would condescend to a scene,
and he even thought that perhaps she did not feel so deeply as he had
supposed.

"After all," he said to himself exultantly, "there's no harm done. I
need not have been so conscience-stricken. What is a pretty speech and a
kiss to a woman who has lived, travelled over the world, read widely,
thought many things? Now, if I had treated Betty in such a way I should
be a blackguard. She could not have understood. She could only have
suffered. I will never hurt her--Betty!"

His nature was so full of her that it could no longer hold any thought
of Clarice. And for a little while, as Bellairs dived into Betty's
heart, he was astonished at the passion he found there, and
congratulated himself on having released her from bondage. Now, at
least, he was teaching her to be herself. He was killing the echo and
creating a voice, a beautiful, clear, radiant voice that would sing to
him, to him alone.

"Betty has a great deal in her," he said to Clarice once.

"Yes--a great deal. Who put it there, do you think?"

"Who? Why, nobody. Surely you would not say that all you yourself have
of--of strength, originality, courage, was put into you by some other
man or woman."

"No. I would not say that. But then--I am not Betty."

Bellairs felt irritated.

"Please don't run Betty down," he exclaimed hastily.

"I! I run down Betty! I don't think you understand what I feel about
Betty. She is the one perfect being I know. I worship her."

"I am sure you do," he said, mollified. "And you have done much for her,
perhaps too much."

"I cannot tell that--yet," Clarice answered. "Some day I may know
whether I have done very much, or very little."

"Some day--when?"

"Perhaps very soon."

Bellairs wondered what she meant, and wondered, too, why he had a sudden
sense of uneasiness.

It was a day or two after this conversation that a light cloud seemed to
float across his lover's happiness with Betty. He could not tell the
exact moment when it came, nor from what quarter